Doorways in the rain
by Majorrogue
Summary: Nicole runs into her favourite bar tender on her evening patrol.


Nicole slowly walked back to her police car after patrolling the main street for the last hour or so. There was literally no one around, it had been such a sunny day she assumes everyone had filled up on beer during the day and had now gone home to sleep it off. But, it was pretty late now and since the sun had gone down the temperature had starting to drop, she had already rolled the sleeves of her uniform down to try to keep her arms warm, but she was definitely looking forward to getting in her car and cranking the heater up.

As she carried on down the street she heard a door slam closed and looked up to find she was nearly outside Shorty's Bar. A small figure was standing outside rummaging in her handbag. Nicole stopped in her tracks, she knew who it was instantly and didn't know what to do. _Just play it cool! you're just on patrol, just speak to her, you've done it before, it's easy!_

As she stood and silently watched, the figure pulled out a set of noisy keys and proceeded to lock the main door of the bar, she then turned towards the street shivered slightly and pulled her long cardigan around her body more to keep warm in the cold night.

Nicole took a step forward. _Just say Hi!_

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out _. Oh this is ridiculous! come on, you can do this!_

Nicole looked down, took a deep breathe in and steeled herself to talk to the girl she'd had a massive crush on for the past few weeks. It's not like they hadn't talked before, they had, but only really work related stuff or awkward small talk. Nicole was desperately trying to get some sort of indication as to whether or not the pretty bar tender was open to being maybe friends or, more accurately, more than friends.

She started walking towards the bar again "Hey Waverly!"

Waverly jumped out of her skin "What the fu.." she span around with her hand on her heart

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you" Nicole felt awful

After seeing that it wasn't some serial killer scaring her out of her wits, Waverly leaned over slightly and tried to get her breath back, she breathed in and out a couple of times "oooh!" she laughed glancing at Nicole "That…phew… that's okay…" she said standing upright again and looking straight at her "…Officer Haught" she smiled brightly

Nicole would never admit it, but she really liked the way her name sounded coming out of Waverly Earp's mouth. And that smile? _oh my!_

"I was…I was just finishing my patrol…" she tried to explain looking down at Waverly and smiling apologetically

"Oh! end of a shift for both of us then, huh?" Waverly asked as she put the bar keys back in her bag

"Yeah…" Nicole smiled. She said it before she really had a chance to grasp what Waverly had said, but didn't really have the heart to tell her that she still had to go back to the station for the next three hours until the real end of her shift.

There was a moment of silence as they both just looked at each other and smiled.

Waverly realised she had been looking at the officer a little too long "So…err…"

"Yeah." Nicole said randomly realising she had also been staring "Er…well, can I walk you to your car?" she asked trying not to act too weird.

Waverly smiled "A police escort? How can I say no!"

 _Please don't blush, please don't blush!_ Nicole smiled and gestured in the direction she was walking.

Waverly smiled shyly, span on her toes in the direction of her car and slowly started walking next to the officer "So how was your day? mine was suuuper busy…" Waverly glanced up at Nicole and swung her arms at her sides "…I think everyone was just trying to cool down with a cold beer after having fun in the sun" She smiled "Although I missed most of it…the sun that is, y'know being stuck indoors all day…" She was waffling now and she knew it "But I suppose you were lucky enough to be out in the sun all day?"

"Unfortunately no" Nicole smiled sadly

"Oh?"

"I was in my patrol car for most of it, I only managed to get out in it a few hours ago and by then the sun was going down…"

"Well, we'll both have to do better tomorrow then wont we offic-..OH!" Waverly stopped talking abruptly and quickly moved her hand to her forehead and wiped something away.

"What is it? are you okay?" Nicole asked concerned

"Yeah, is it…is that rain?" Waverly looked at her hand then put it out in front of her to see if any more drops might hit it and after a moment they did.

Nicole had unconsciously put her hand out too to see if it was indeed raining, they seemed to both feel the rain at the same time.

"Oh!" they said simultaneously

"We'd better get you to your car" Nicole said

Waverly looked up at her, how was it this woman could make her feel all funny inside just by being concerned about her getting rained on?

They started to walk faster towards Waverly's car, but the rain was getting heavier and they seemed to be nowhere near the vehicle.

Neither of them were prepared for the sudden deluge of rain that hit them "Aaahhh!" Waverly screamed laughing

Neither of them were dressed for rain and they could feel it soaking into their shoulders. They both ducked their heads trying unsuccessfully to avoid getting wet as they started to run.

"Quick, quick!" Nicole said grabbing Waverly's arm softly and pulling her into a nearby shop doorway and out of the rain.

They both ended up laughing at just how soaked they were from only a few seconds in the rain.

"Oh my god!" Waverly exclaimed shaking her head to get some water off

"Where did that come from?" Nicole laughed while wiping her forehead with a wet hand.

Time seemed to slow as she looked at Waverly who was trying to wipe the rain off of her shoulders. Nicole hadn't noticed it at the time of grabbing Waverly that the shop doorway they were now safely hiding in wasn't all that wide and they were both standing very close to each other.

Her proximity to the younger woman made Nicole's heart beat a little quicker and she took the opportunity to admire her close up. The first thing she noticed at this distance was that she smelled lovely, well there was a slight smell of beer and bar, but beyond that she smelt of lavender. As she looked down at the woman in front of her still fussing about the rain, she also couldn't help but smile at Waverly's smile, it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen and seeing it this close just made her heart smile. But it wasn't just a simply smile, she seemed to smile with her eyes too and it just seemed to light up the whole of her face. She moved her eyes around Waverly's face taking in as much as she could and stopped on her lips again. When Waverly wasn't smiling she was normally talking and Nicole couldn't help but watch those lips moving, she wondered how those lips would feel if she kissed them.

Nicole hadn't noticed that Waverly was now looking up at her with a puzzled look on her face. She was still looking at her dreamily and without really thinking about it she reached her hand up to Waverly's face and carefully moved a strand of hair from her cheek that had become stuck in the rain.

Nicole now noticed Waverly's somewhat shocked expression and slight blush appear across her cheek at the unexpected and slightly intimate action. Nicole snapped out of her awe.

"Sorry, some hair was stuck to your cheek" Nicole apologised feeling her cheeks flush "sorry" she said again

Waverly smiled "Thank you" she replied softly

She moved her hand to the place Nicole had touched moments before and watched as the taller woman looked away, in what seemed to be embarrassment.

Waverly took the opportunity to look at the officer closer. There was no denying that Waverly had felt something the first time they had spoken, something that Waverly hadn't felt in a long time. But she'd also never felt it for a woman before. What was it about this tall confident woman that had Waverly in such a spin? She had to admit the confidence was quite appealing on it's own, but looking up at her now she seemed shy and maybe a little unsure, but still extremely attractive. She felt safe with her, even squashed this close to her, she felt safe, like maybe she wouldn't have if she were a man.

This proximity also gave Waverly a strange and rather random thought: _I bet she's a good hugger!_ She did't know where the thought came from, but the more she thought about it the more she was convinced. Nicole seemed to be the perfect height for her to rest her head in the perfect position on her chest and shoulder for a great hug and she knew she would feel protected. The thought was very appealing. As Waverly looked straight ahead at the officers uniform she thought about how, whenever she saw Nicole she never had her shirt buttons done up as far as they should be. _Fewer to undo_

"Oh!" she surprised herself with the thought, she shouldn't be thinking that sort of thing….should she? She cleared her throat to try to cover up her own surprised exclamation

Nicole turned to look at her concerned "You okay?"

"Yes, yes, fine" Waverly tried to cover, perhaps unconvincingly. Nicole smiled down at her

 _Oh god that smile!_ Waverly thought seeing the dimples appear in the beautiful officers cheeks

They were staring at each other again

Nicole was the first to look away "How far is your car?" she asked not looking at Waverly "Maybe we could make a run for it?" She stuck her head out from under the covered doorway to look down the street, but then pulled it back in quickly, the rain was still very heavy.

"It's still quite a way, I couldn't get a good spot this afternoon…OH NO!"

Nicole turned to Waverly quickly "What is it?"

Waverly had scrunched her face up in annoyance, she hadn't thought about it until just this minute "I didn't put the roof on my car…"

"Oh!…Oh no!" Nicole realised what that meant with this weather

They both thought for a moment

"Well, I can get my car and drive you home" Nicole suggested maybe a little too happily

"But the rain? We should wait" Waverly didn't want Nicole getting soaked through just for her

"That's okay" She smiled "I'm wet enough already, I mean, with the rain, and once you're wet, you're wet, right?" _stop talking, you'll embarrass yourself! go and get your car!_

"I'll be right back" Nicole said quickly disappearing into the rain before Waverly could protest.

Waverly moved to stand at the edge of the doorway just out of reach of the rain. There she waited for Nicole to return. As she waited she smiled to herself. She was feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush and knowing that she was about to spend another fifteen minutes or so with her crush was filling her with a pleasant warm feeling in her chest and she couldn't help but smile to herself.

It didn't take long for Waverly to see a car driving in her direction and stopping just in front of her by the parked cars. The door swung open and Waverly saw a smiling face.

"Jump in" said Nicole

Waverly ducked her head and quickly ran for the open door and did indeed jump in. She shook her head again to try to get rid of any rain, then wiped her face to remove any liquid and hair from her face and try to look as nice as possible. She then turned to Nicole who was smiling back at her, but with some of her hair sticking to her forehead from the rain. Waverly daren't look at Nicole's thin shirt to see if it was wet and sticking to her. She looked away quickly and felt her face flush.

"Hi!" Nicole said smiling not seeing Waverly's embarrassment

Waverly smiled sweetly "Hi!"


End file.
